


Through the Looking Glass

by steampunkcircus



Series: Looking Glass Worlds [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Multiple Universes, Occasional Mild Language, Switching places with yourself from another universe, gabenath week, ok slightly more violence, small rebel force against evil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2019-06-26 12:40:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15663423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steampunkcircus/pseuds/steampunkcircus
Summary: A magic spell goes wrong and Nathalie Sancoeur finds herself somewhere else. Adrien calls her "Mom" and Penny Rolling calls her General. Nathalie Agreste finds herself with a sad Adrien who doesn't call her mom and a supervillain wearing her husband's face. Those in each universe will have to learn to work together with the people they're stuck with if the Nathalies are ever to be swapped back.





	1. You're Not Her (Go Akumatize Yourself)

**Author's Note:**

> So I was thinking about the Stargate SG-1 episode "Point of View" recently. This, somehow, was the result. You don't have to know anything about Stargate or that episode to understand this, but if you know the episode, that's my inspiration, loosely.

**ONE**

"Sir, I'm not sure this will work," Nathalie said, squinting through her lab goggles across the room at the roiling mass that looked like pastel blue tar.

"It has to work. I need more power if I'm going to get those miraculous. Hand me the last ingredient."

"But the translation, I think it was-"

"Hand it to me!"

Nathalie crossed the room to his workbench in the lair. She handed him the bundle of herbs and checked her phone.

"Sir, Adrien will be getting home soon. I need to ask him what he thought about that photographer we used yesterday. I've heard from some of the crew from the shoot that he was aggressive and impossible to work with. If that's the case, I'd like to-"

"Just go. I should be done soon."

Nathalie nodded and exited the lair. She let out a shaky breath and slipped the goggles from her face, smoothing a hand over her hair. As she approached her desk, she felt dizzy for a moment. She closed her eyes and reached for the cool white surface before her and everything seemed to freeze. A falling sensation overtook her, and she wondered with a detached curiosity if there was a proper way to fall when losing consciousness to minimize injury. She felt her knees hit the ground and nothing more.

/*****/

**TWO**

"Mom? Can you hear me? She's waking up!"

Nathalie kept her eyes closed and took stock of how she felt. She ached like she had worked out too hard, muscles protesting movement. Her head felt a little too light and her skin was cold and clammy like she had been sweating. What had happened? She remembered helping Mr. Agreste with a mostly-translated spell and potion. She remembered she needed to talk to Adrien, and heading to the exit of the lair. Then, nothing. She had felt fine all day. If something were wrong-

Wait, did that voice call her "Mom"?

Her eyes flew open. She looked around the room and spotted a familiar mop of blond hair.

"Adrien? What- where am I?"

The room was unfamiliar. She was on a bed, large and comfortable, with a canopy above. The furniture was of beautiful dark wood: a desk, two dressers, an armoire, and two nightstands. The walls were a pale purple, accented in red. She knew every room in the Agreste mansion, and this was not one of them.

"It's your room."

She blinked and sat up, leaning against the headboard with more of her weight than she'd like, weak from whatever had happened to her.

"Where are my-"

Adrien placed her glasses in her hand and she looked around again, taking in details. She spotted pictures of her with the Agrestes on the wall. Pictures she didn't remember taking. Her prescription allergy medication sat on the nightstand to her right, along with a battered copy of her favorite book, but definitely not _her_ copy.

"What is this?" she asked, a little more harshly than she intended. "Where am I really?"

"What? Mom, are you okay?"

"Adrien, did someone take us?" Panic started bubbling as theories flowed together in her mind. "Was I drugged? Were you? Are you okay?"

"Penny?" Adrien called over his shoulder.

"Sorry, sorry, I was dealing with some new recruits."

Penny Rolling walked in the room with a concerned look on her face. To Nathalie's knowledge, there had been no meeting with Jagged or Penny that day.

"How are you, General? I wanted to wait before calling the doctor to see if you remember what happened."

Penny was pregnant. Clearly showing. There was no way that could be, though, because Nathalie had seen her for lunch three days ago. Something was off. Everything was off.

Nathalie didn't say a word. She stood on shaky legs and looked around. Her shoes were set next to the bed, and she slipped them on.

"You wore heels today?" Penny asked. “You never wear heels.”

She did not say, "Of course I wore heels, it's in my contract with Gabriel." She did not say, "Adrien called me Mom and I'm not sure how I feel about that." She did not ask, "Who are you people, what has happened, where am I?"

Instead, she walked to the half-open bathroom door, closed it, locked it, and pulled out her phone.

No signal.

She sat on the floor and tried not to hyperventilate.

/*****/

**ONE**

"Nathalie? Nathalie, what happened?"

Nathalie took stock of the situation quickly. She was in pain, but not a lot. Adrien was calling her "Nathalie" instead of "Mom", which bothered her a little, but she had told him from the start to call her whatever he wanted. She was on the floor. A cold, hard floor. The last thing she remembered was reading a report on the latest rebel attack in her room, the only quiet haven she had left.

"Should I call for an ambulance? Or maybe the Gorilla can drive you to the doctor? Where is Father? Oh, maybe I shouldn't be asking so many questions. Or, you're supposed to ask questions of a person who has lost consciousness, I think?"

"Adrien," Nathalie said, sitting up and shifting to lean back against the leg of the desk behind her. "I will be fine. You know where your father is. Can you calm down for me? Take a few deep breaths and help me fill in the pieces?"

Adrien looked at her like she was crazy, but he did as she said and sat on the floor with her.

"First question," Nathalie said. "Where am I?"

"I- what?" Adrien looked even more confused. Should she recognize this place? Some large, empty room with too much white and black, expensive furniture, modeling photos everywhere? It looked like the kind of thing Gabriel would set up if she had let him choose decorations. A mistake she had made only once. Wait, were those _recent_ modeling photos of Adrien?

"Please answer, even if you think I should know," she said. Something was up, and she wasn't going to let him keep her from knowing what she needed to fix this.

"It's your office. Yours and Father's."

Okay, that wasn't good. Adrien had no reason to lie or trick her, and he looked too genuinely worried to be playing some kind of trick, not that he had the heart to play a practical joke on someone he had found unconscious on the floor. And the mention of his father...

"How long was I unconscious?"

"I don't know, I just saw you here a minute before you woke up."

She nodded. "And we don't know where Penny is?"

"No. Were you expecting her?"

Expecting her? She lived with them. Nathalie shook her head. One problem at a time. "Okay, let's go to the kitchen. Maybe I forgot to have breakfast or something."

"Are you sure you don't want to go to the doctor?"

"Very. Come on, I'll make you one of those disgusting banana peanut-butter sandwiches you like."

She stood slowly and carefully and Adrien stood with her.

"But Father doesn't want me eating so many empty calories."

Nathalie sat back down with a thump. Forgetting where his father was once when worried or distracted wasn't all that unusual. Thrice in just a few minutes? Never.

"Adrien, sweetie, are you okay?"

Adrien looked at her like she had grown a second head.

"I- yes? Are you?"

Nathalie looked from him to the modeling pictures. These had to be recent, but Adrien had quit modeling when they had joined the resistance to lower his media profile. What was going on?

"Let's just... go have a snack," Nathalie said, standing and putting a hand on Adrien's shoulder. He nodded and by the time they had reached the kitchen she was starting to realize this situation was weirder than she could have guessed. They were in some sort of mansion, by the size of it. The kitchen, when they arrived, was gigantic and a chef was there on standby. She rolled with it and asked for anything the chef felt like making for herself and a banana and peanut-butter sandwich for Adrien, who looked delighted.

"Adrien, tell me about your day," she said, trying to restrain herself from wolfing down her food. She hadn't realized how hungry she was.

Adrien described a day of public school, fencing practice, and the Chinese lesson he had just finished. She nodded as if this was all normal, but her Adrien had been taking Japanese, not Chinese, and had been forced to quit fencing for a year after an injury. It was enough information to let her know that this place wasn't right. She had one last trick to play.

"Adrien, have you seen any good movies lately?"

Adrien happily recounted the latest anime he had seen for a few minutes.

He didn't know their code phrase. The response was, “Yes, but you wouldn’t like them.” This was not Adrien Agreste.

Nathalie followed Adrien back to the office. When the door opened and she saw who stood before her, she froze, worried she would pass out again. This was a trick. A cruel trick.

"Adrien, go to your room," Gabriel said without looking up from his computer.

"Yes, Father."

Alone in the office, Gabriel looked up at Nathalie.

"You're not her."

"Not who?" she asked, forcing her posture to appear serene.

"You're not the Nathalie I know."

"And you're not my dead husband."

Gabriel made a choking sound.

"No, I'm not. To my knowledge, you are unmarried. Or, the Nathalie who belongs here is."

"This is another world?" She didn't mean to ask it out loud, but this man seemed to have some answers, and he had the face of the man she trusted. The man she loved. The man she lost.

"For you, I will assume so."

"How did this happen?" she asked, taking another few steps towards him.

"I was working on a project. It may have gone a bit astray. I had thought it was just a dud when nothing seemed to happen." He gestured to her. "Clearly I was mistaken."

She took a few steps closer. "What were you working on?"

"I'm sorry," Gabriel said, shaking his head. "I don't know you. I don't trust you. You aren't _my_  Nathalie."

With movements quicker than Gabriel could follow, Nathalie shoved Gabriel into the wall behind him and held a knife up to his throat.

"You, man wearing my husband's face, are going to answer me." Her voice did not raise, her grip on him was firm but not cruel. He just needed to know with whom he was dealing.

"Nooroo, dark wings rise!"

A pulse of magical energy shot Nathalie across the room. Before her stood a corrupt miraculous wielder.

The first, irrational thought that came to her mind was, _My husband's costume was much less dorky_ , and the second was, _I am so screwed_.

"Well. That answers a lot of questions," she said, gripping the knife in her hand even knowing there wasn't much she could do against a transformed miraculous holder.

"I'm afraid you're going to have to come with me," Hawkmoth said, reaching for her.

"Go akumatize yourself," she said, calm as could be.


	2. Spot the Difference (Administrative Assistant's Day)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Nathalies learn about the world they're in.

**TWO**

"Nathalie?" the boy who looked like Adrien called through the bathroom door.

"You aren't Adrien," Nathalie said, pacing the length of the bathroom and looking around for anything to help her out of this situation.

"Then who am I?" he asked. She could hear him worrying.

"I'm not sure," she said. She wasn't sure of much except that something was very, very wrong.

"Nathalie, I'm calling the doctor," he said.

"No," she said. "Of all the things of which I am certain at this moment, I am certain that my health and I are not the problem here."

"Nathalie Agreste, unlock this door and tell me what's wrong right now!" Not-Penny demanded.

"See, that's not my name," Nathalie said. "I don't know what's going on, but I am sure this is not my home, that is not my name, and you are not the people I know."

A hushed conversation could be heard through the door, just enough for Nathalie to know they were talking about her but not for her to know what they were saying.

"Okay, then who are you?" Not-Adrien asked.

"Nathalie Sancoeur. I work for Gabriel Agreste and his fashion company. I was Adrien's home school teacher until this school year."

Not-Adrien swore. Not-Penny and Nathalie both reprimanded him.

"They did something. Ladybug and Chat Noir," Not-Adrien said.

"The superheroes?" Nathalie asked.

"The super _villains_."

She unlocked the door.

/*****/

**ONE**

It was a brief struggle, Gabriel managing to overpower Nathalie and knock the knife from her hand with ease. He was surprised at how practiced and easy her fighting was, his miraculous enhanced strength and toughness challenged a bit by her. Unable to activate the secret entrance with one hand, he got a hold on her and teleported them to his lair, dropping her on the floor.

"In five minutes when your miraculous times out," Nathalie said, brushing herself off and standing, "I will overpower you. I will take your miraculous, and you will answer my questions. So either kill me now, or answer my questions willingly."

"You assume I'm not going to use those five minutes to my advantage," Gabriel said.

"You'll try," she said. "But know this. I will destroy your whole world to get back to mine. You can sense my emotions. Am I bluffing? Am I lying? Am I capable of what I claim?"

Hawkmoth drew his sword and pointed it at her.

"You seem to know I won't kill you. You don't fear me," he said, watching her neutral expression and feeling no change in her emotions with a blade in her face.

"You need me alive. Killing me would raise a lot of questions, regardless of what your relationship to your Nathalie is."

Hawkmoth withdrew his sword and nodded at her.

"True. But short of death, there are a lot of things I can do. For example, tie you to a chair and leave you here overnight."

"That's an option, yes," she said. "But I'll escape. And I can be a lot of trouble, even stuck in this little... is this a supervillain lair?" She sighed. "I'm in another entire universe, and Gabriel Felix Agreste is still the most overdramatic man I have ever met."

"Fine," Hawkmoth said. "What do you suggest then? I allow you free reign? I allow you to confuse my son, out me as Hawkmoth to all of Paris, screw up my assistant's life?"

"Confusing your son is probably better than allowing him to live with a supervillain for a father." She started walking around the lair, hands behind her back. "No, I propose a game of questions. I'll answer one for each you answer. We will recharge your kwami and hand the miraculous back and forth between us-"

"That's not happening," Hawkmoth said.

"Fine, we'll recharge your kwami, you'll stay detransformed, and we'll exchange questions as civilians until we're both satisfied. Agreed?"

Hawkmoth sighed. "You don't fear me like she does."

"That's because I'm more powerful than whoever was here before me."

/*****/

**TWO**

"That's absurd," Nathalie said, opening the door to the bathroom.

Not-Adrien pointed to his right temple.

"Your hair," he said, indicating the streak of red on the left side of her face. "I didn't notice before, the red's on the wrong side. What hand do you use to write?"

"My left," she said. She wasn't sure what that had to do with her hair.

"You're not my Mom, are you?"

"I am sure that Emilie and I are different people," she said. A look of pain crossed his face and she wasn’t sure which part of what she said hurt him.

"How did this happen?" Not-Penny asked, running a hand over her baby bump. "Half an hour ago, I was asking Nathalie Agreste for the latest attack plan, and now some doppelganger has taken her place?"

"Come with me," Not-Adrien said. "We'll figure this out."

Nathalie followed them to a small living room. The purple theme from the bedroom was here as well, white walls with purple trim and lavender furniture. Red throw pillows and red lamp shades also echoed the bedroom.

"Sit down," Not-Penny said. "Are you hungry? I can whip something up. I'm always hungry these days."

"That's not important right now," she said, sitting on one of the couches. Not-Penny joined her, and Not-Adrien took the chair next to Nathalie. "I need you to tell me what you know. How did I get here? Where is here?"

"I know magic was involved," Not-Adrien said.

"I suspected that much," Nathalie said. "If I had to guess, whatever the Gabriel back in my world was working on did this. I told him that the translation wasn't accurate, but he-"

"Your Gabriel's still alive?" Not-Penny said, leaning forward.

"Yours isn't?"

"Chat Noir killed him two months ago," Not-Adrien spat.

She didn't know what to say. She put a hand on his arm.

"It's been hard," Not-Penny said. "The General has been strong, but we were worried about her before... this-" she gestured to Nathalie, "-happened. When Kiddo said Nathalie was unconscious, I thought she had finally broken."

"General? Nathalie Agreste is a general?"

"Not officially," Not-Adrien said. "We're leading the resistance movement against the rule of Ladybug and Chat Noir."

/*****/

**ONE**

Impostor Nathalie and Hawkmoth Gabriel were in a staring match. Nooroo was getting nervous.

"Master, maybe if you just-"

"I can't believe her," Gabriel cut him off. "But even without empath powers, I can tell she thinks she's telling the truth."

"Why would I lie? Ladybug and Chat Noir are terrorists controlling a large part of the world. I lead the fight against them. I lost my husband Gabriel recently. You, on the other hand, must be lying."

"He really isn't," Nooroo said.

"Emilie goes missing, Gabriel becomes a supervillain? I can understand you never noticing your Nathalie if Emilie was around, but I can't understand the reaction of _supervillainy_ , Gabriel. And performing a spell without knowing it would work? What kind of ridiculous magical hubris-"

"I may have been a bit impatient, but Nathalie was being overly cautious."

"Clearly she wasn’t.” She suppressed an eyeroll. “Give me the untranslated spell and your lab notes of exactly what you did," She held out her hand. "I'll figure out what you did wrong, and that will help us figure out how to reverse it."

"How are you so sure it can be reversed?" Gabriel asked, tilting his head so his glasses reflected enough light to block her view of his eyes. Dramatic fool. Her heart ached.

"Because it has to be," she said. "I have to get home. I have a son. I have an entire rebel army depending on me. Your Nathalie sounds nice enough, but she doesn't sound like she's up to the task of fighting an evil regime. Not if she's enough of a coward to help with yours."

Gabriel stepped closer to tower over her, considered raising his hand to make her think he'd hit her. She took a step closer and shoved him, hard.

"It's bad enough you're wearing his face," Nathalie said, turning her back on him. "Please don't ruin my dead husband's memory any more than you have to with ridiculous intimidation attempts that won't work."

He had to find a way to control her.

"How about a deal?" he asked. "I will help you get back to where you came from if you will pretend to be my Nathalie, keep up appearances to the company, the public, and my son."

She stepped close to him. He noticed she was even shorter than his Nathalie and realized it was probably the lack of heels. But even without the height advantage, she was intimidating.

"I know you," she said. "Not everything, but I know you. So I'll do the secretary Nathalie thing during business hours, if only to keep an eye on you, but the second five o'clock rolls around, you're here, being _my_ assistant until I'm back home. Got it?"

"I look forward to our partnership," he said with every drop of calm and bored he could bring to the surface.

She smirked.

"You will."

/*****/

**TWO**

Nathalie mentally reviewed the information on the resistance she had been given. Penny was in charge of supplies for the rebels. Jagged was an informant, working to "raise morale" for the regime but actually playing dumb around powerful people and listening at doors to help the cause. Penny and Jagged were due in two months. Tom Dupain and Sabine Cheng organized housing and shelter for those the regime targeted. Adrien and his girlfriend, Marinette, used their network of teens as spies and message carriers while pretending to lead normal, regime-approved lives.

And Nathalie Agreste? Nathalie was the brains behind it all. Organization, military strategy, leadership. Nathalie Sancoeur felt she shared only one of those three characteristics with her double.

"Should we tell her about-?" Penny asked, making a hand gesture that Nathalie couldn't interpret.

"Not yet," Adrien said. "What about the videos? That might help her get a better feel for this world."

Adrien found Nathalie Agreste's phone and unlocked it, pulling up video after video. The first set were battles recorded at a distance by the Ladyblogger girl. The supervillains Ladybug and Chat Noir were clearly adults, but acted like tantrum throwing toddlers, wreaking havoc over the city. A purple hero with a sword and a blue hero with a fan that became darts fought them. Hawkmoth and Paon, Adrien said. The battles ended in what seemed like a draw, all four leaving as their miraculouses beeped.

The next set of videos were harder to watch. Emilie Agreste’s goodbye video from a hospital bed. A birthday party for Adrien where Gabriel carried in the cake and Adrien looked to Nathalie behind him. Adrien explained he knew she was the reason the party happened at all. A video of Gabriel teaching Adrien to dance where the camera was passed from Nathalie to Adrien who filmed them dancing and blushing. The next was Gabriel proposing. The last was a small wedding in the very living room where they were sitting.

"Now, what some of you don't know," Jagged said from his position between the couple, officiating, "is that Gabriel chose this date because it's Administrative Assistant's Day."

"I didn't know that!" Nathalie said, laughing. "That's a thing? Eight years by your side, and you wait until I'm not your assistant any more to celebrate?"

"I had hoped today would make up for missing it eight times," Gabriel said.

Jagged talked a bit more, then Gabriel read his vows.

"I, Gabriel Felix Agreste, promise to be the one who makes the breakfast while you make the coffee. The one fighting this war by your side every day. Your partner and best friend."

Nathalie pushed Adrien's arm holding the phone out of her way and fled. She didn't know where she was going, but that was not something she could watch.

/*****/

**ONE**

"I haven't done the assistant thing in ages," Nathalie complained, flicking through the tablet Gabriel had handed her. "You only have an hour or so until we start on my work, so list your top three priorities now and we'll see how far we get."

They worked mostly on getting Nathalie up to speed until Adrien interrupted.

"Nathalie, I have something for you," Adrien said. He held out a box wrapped in shiny paper.

"For me?" she asked, taking the box. "What's the occasion?"

He waited until she saw the mug behind the paper. "World's Most Awesome Assistant" was printed on the side of a coffee mug.

"It's Administrative Assistant's Day! I know how much you like coffee, so I thought you'd-"

Nathalie hastily put the mug down with shaking hands and pulled Adrien into a hug. She held back her tears through sheer force of will.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"Are you feeling better, Nathalie?" Adrien asked, hugging her back.

 _Minus the stab to my heart that you're not my son? That you don't call me "Mom"_? she thought. "Much."

Adrien skipped off to somewhere else in the house and she sat heavily at her desk, her head clutched in her hands until it hurt.

"What was that?" Gabriel asked.

"Nothing," Nathalie said, straightening. "Today's just hitting me, that's all."

"Who has even heard of Administrative Assistant's Day?" Gabriel muttered to himself.

Nathalie couldn't stop her tears that time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	3. Coffee and Stew (Role Swap)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On Earth 1, Gabriel and Nathalie get to work on figuring out what went wrong to cause the switch. On Earth 2, Nathalie starts to realize that she and her doppelganger are on opposite sides of similar wars.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Brief violent interaction that goes beyond "canon typical" in this chapter, just a heads up.

**ONE**

Gabriel ignored Nathalie's tears. He had to focus on his goal. Emilie was out there somewhere, and he would find her. This woman and her feelings were just a roadblock along the way. He would overcome that roadblock just like he had so many others. Nothing could stop him.

The crying ended quickly enough and they worked quietly until five pm came around.

"Show me how to access the lair," Nathalie said, powering down her computer.

"We usually keep working until-"

"I don't care," Nathalie said. "When your Nathalie is back she can make up the time we lose fixing your mistake. I'm sure she'd be glad to."

"You don't even know her," Gabriel said. Nathalie had been loyal to him for ages, who was this impostor to criticize one of the people on whom he most relied?

"She's working for a supervillain terrorist. I fight supervillain terrorists. Sounds like she's exactly the type of person I know."

"She's loyal," Gabriel said. "She's helpful and skilled. You are a single-minded, pushy woman who only seems to see things in black and white."

"I see shades of grey," she said. "However, supervillain terrorists fighting _children_  clearly fall into the 'black' category."

"I never said they were children," he said.

"A four second search online filled in that bit of information you left out." She gestured for him to hurry up. "Lair. Now."

Gabriel sighed and showed her how to use the painting to access the secret tunnel. She called him dramatic again.

/*****/

**TWO**

Nathalie found herself walking in a small residential area. Half the houses seemed abandoned and the sidewalks and streets were in disrepair. She didn't get far before it dawned on her that she was living in the world she had seen in those videos of battles. If Ladybug was on the dark side, then there was no Lucky Charm to fix everything. She didn't see a single other person outside, no cars drove down the road. Nothing but a few houses with lights on gave any indication that there was life around her. It was eerie and soon enough she found herself turning back.

"I have nowhere else to go," she said when Adrien and Penny looked up as she entered the living room.

“I followed you,” Adrien blurted as she sat in the chair he had previously occupied. “It’s not exactly safe outside, and you’re new to things, and while most people around here like Nathalie and know she can take care of herself, I don’t know if _you_ can take care of yourself, so… So I followed you until you turned back.”

“I’m sorry you had to go to the trouble,” Nathalie said. “I apologize for my… unnecessary display of emotion.”

“Wow,” Penny said shaking her head. “That time you sounded just like her.”

“Yeah,” Adrien said, shifting in his seat and staring at his knees.

“You saw her as your mother?” Nathalie asked. She shouldn’t have spoken, she knew that, but she had always had a weakness for Adrien. It wasn’t hard to picture being a parent to him instead of a vague occasional guardian figure, but to picture him seeing her that way? It didn’t compute.

(Because if it did, she might want it, and never stop wanting it.)

“See. Present tense,” he said. She nodded for him to continue. “She took care of everyone when Mama got sick, and after she died. I actually started calling her Mom before Dad even realized he was falling in love with her. Usually, I’m the last one to realize things.”

“My Adrien can be a bit oblivious as well. He still hasn’t caught on that my world’s Marinette likes him.” She allowed herself a small shake of her head at some of the obvious signs Adrien had missed.

Penny laughed. “This Adrien didn’t realize either for quite a while. But having to work together to fight for our lives and our people makes it harder to hide things like that.” She placed her hands on either side of her pregnant belly. “My little family is another example of that.”

“And Nathalie and Gabriel?” The words felt so wrong.

“They started dating a few months before the first attack.”

She nodded. “I don’t really know what to do now. I don’t plan to wait around for rescue, but I’m fairly sure I don’t know enough magic to even replicate what happened today, and I’m not the wartime strategist of which it sounds like you’re now in need. I’m used to following orders, not giving them.”

“What was your Gabriel working on?” Penny asked. She stood and beckoned the other two to follow her to the kitchen. “We have to start dinner, the crowd will arrive soon, and we’ll have to fill them in.”

“Magical power enhancement,” she said. She relaxed when she saw the well organized kitchen with charts on the cupboard doors outlining what meals were planned and what ingredients needed for each meal. She busied herself with preparing the stew while Adrien worked on the salad and Penny put a couple loaves of bread in the oven.

“We considered that, but it was too much risk,” Adrien said. He froze, knife poised above a tomato. “I didn’t mean… I’m sure you weren’t-”

“It was obviously too much risk, seeing as I am here and your mother is not. The Gabriel in my world is a fool, but I’ve been by his side a very long time.”

“So, what’s your superhero team like?” Penny asked. “You were surprised Ladybug and Chat Noir weren’t heroes, so I assume those two, plus Gabriel’s Hawkmoth. Do you have one?”

“One?” Nathalie asked. Her mind was racing through multiple pipelines of processing, but warning lights were already going off. These people thought she was on the side of the heroes. These people were fighting their world’s version of Hawkmoth. She was Hawkmoth’s (evil Hawkmoth’s) right-hand man, confidant, and coffee-fetcher. She couldn’t let them know. She had just said that she had nowhere else to go.

“A miraculous.”

“Me?” Nathalie asked, almost slicing her finger instead of the chicken she was adding to the stew. “No. Absolutely not.”

Adrien and Penny shared a look. She was getting the feeling there were secrets on both sides.

There was a knock at the door.

"Well, are you ready to introduce yourself to a lot of people that are going to be very confused?" Penny asked, setting down the last place setting on the large dining room table in the next room.

"I suppose it's necessary. My double seems to have led a much higher profile life than I."

"Everyone will be nice and want to help you," Adrien said.

_That's exactly the problem_ , Nathalie thought.

/*****/

**ONE**

"What do you mean 'there are no lab notes'?"

"What could that possibly mean other than the obvious?" Gabriel asked, resisting the urge to bang his head on the lab table in front of him.

"Fine, _you_ didn't take lab notes. Don't tell me the secretary didn't."

"Don't call her that."

"Why not? With the way you try to scare me into submission, she can't be anything but a helpful robot to you."

"Nathalie Sancoeur is the most loyal, steadfast woman I have met in my life."

"Then where are her notes?"

Gabriel pinched the bridge of his nose, nudging his glasses out of the way. "Were I to guess, either in this room or in a locked folder on her tablet or phone."

"I haven't found her phone since I've been here so I have to assume that went with her," Nathalie said, pulling the tablet from the bag she had set against the wall. "Let's hope it's here."

"Her personal tablet," Gabriel said. "She would never use a company owned device for this."

Nathalie searched the bag again and found a second tablet. She was signed in and found the secret folder in a matter of seconds.

"You seem so dissimilar," Gabriel said. "And then you can access her tablet, protected by multiple passwords with no issues."

"I'm just lucky she didn't protect it with a finger scan." After a bit of searching, Nathalie sighed. "You idiot," she said, not even looking up. "This translation isn't complete. I can spot three mistranslations immediately. I need a fresh copy of the original text." She held out her hand like she expected him to place the original spell there immediately.

"Then go make a photocopy," Gabriel said.

She looked up at him finally. "Was I not clear? You caused this. I am doing you a favor by being your assistant during the day. The absolute least you can do to help clean up your own mess is to assist me in piecing back together what you did wrong. Now go get me a fresh copy, some coffee, and order us dinner."

Gabriel spluttered. Nathalie set the tablet down parallel to the edge of the workbench and stood. She grabbed Gabriel by the back of his collar and wrenched him backwards off his stool. She yanked hard enough to cut off his breathing for a moment.

"I'll put it another way," she said in his ear as he struggled to get his feet under him. "Assist me and I let you keep your miraculous."

She released him with a shove forward and he staggered, catching himself on the workbench.

Gabriel turned to face her and saw... nothing. No expression on her face. He opened his mouth, not sure what he was about to say and she raised her hand.

"Don't speak. Just go."

Gabriel left, fuming.

Nathalie had found the lab notes of the steps her doppelganger and Evil Gabriel had taken earlier that day. She sent them to the printer, planning to highlight and annotate them once she had a proper translation. She started taking notes and looking up references for translation. Finally, her multiple language degrees were getting use. She loved being the head strategist of the rebellion, but it had been a while since she'd had a puzzle like this to crack. She hated that she was away from the war, her people, her son, her family. She hated that she was staring in her husband's face and seeing just another Ladybug or Chat Noir. She hated so much about this situation, but a puzzle like this? It was the hunt for the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculouses all over again. The part where they had to dig and research and hunt down answers, anyway.

Gabriel returned with two mugs of coffee and muttered something about dinner being on the way. He had also brought the papers she had printed, so she elected to keep quiet instead of verbally berating him again.

"This is awful," she said of her sip of coffee. "How does your Nathalie take her coffee?"

"Oh, I brought cream and sugar if you wanted it," he said, pulling a few packets out of his pocket.

"You don't know how she takes her coffee?" she asked, dumping in creamer.

"I need to check on some things in the office," Gabriel said. "And dinner is probably only a minute or two away."

"That's a 'no'," she muttered, but absorbed herself in her work again.

In the office, Gabriel wondered if he should know the coffee order of the woman who spent sixty to a hundred hours a week with him.

/*****/

**TWO**

Some of the people who arrived for dinner figured out she wasn't Nathalie before dinner, some didn't notice anything amiss until she stood to introduce herself. She gave a summary of what had happened, letting them come to the conclusion that she and Gabriel were fighting for good as well.

"Will you stay here?" Sabine Cheng asked. "If not, we have a few places."

"Please stay," Adrien said, barely above a whisper.

"I'll stay then," she said.

"You're not a strategist, you said that," Mr. Kubdel said. "Will you wield the peacock, or will we need two replacements now?"

Nathalie turned to Adrien and Penny, who were cringing.

"We hadn't told her that part yet," Penny said.

"She was Paon," Nathalie said out loud as she realized it. She couldn't react, there were too many people. The thought of wielding a miraculous... it felt wrong. Besides, they would need an experienced fighter to participate in the battles she had seen.

"That's fine," Mr. Kubdel said. "It might actually be easier for me to find a pair together than to find someone compatible with you and the butterfly miraculous at once."

The dinner fell into a more normal meal after that, with pockets of conversation around the table. Nathalie appreciated that she wasn't required to say much for the rest of the night because she got to observe Adrien. It was a tight fit for so many people around one table, but Adrien stayed in physical contact with Marinette the whole meal. He smiled and laughed and talked to everyone and checked on Nathalie every few minutes.

_This is the boy he was meant to be_.

She decided to excuse herself from the rest of dinner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	4. Large and Empty, Small and Full (Silence)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nathalie Agreste finds working with Gabriel a little more difficult than anticipated. Nathalie Sancoeur can't find her place in this world. Or doesn't want to.

**ONE**

Nathalie worked in silence, eating around her notes and tablet. Gabriel ate with her, quiet enough that she could forget he was there for the most part. When she finished eating, she decided to make use of Gabriel.

"Could you write down everything you remember from performing the spell? Every ingredient, what it looked like at each stage, if it gave off any smells or created any feelings in you, things like that."

"Of course," Gabriel said, grabbing paper and a pen. He scribbled quietly while she continued translating.

"Do you have any other reference materials I can use, Dear?"

It took a moment for Gabriel to realize she was speaking to him, then a moment more to realize what she had said wrong.

"How long were you two married?"

She looked up, and the way she blinked until her mind focused on the world around her instead of the puzzle of the translation was the most familiar, most "Nathalie" thing he had seen her do yet.

"Three and a half years. Sorry for the slip. We only... lost him two months ago."

"There's a few books under the bench if you need them," Gabriel said.

"You need them," Nathalie corrected, focused back on her puzzle again. "These concepts here, I need you to see if there's an alternate meaning, common phrase, uncommon phrase, anything like that, because in the context of this sentence, the direct translation doesn't sound right." She tapped a piece of paper with a short list of untranslated phrases.

Remembering her threats and that she could manhandle him like a misbehaving kitten, Gabriel merely sighed and pulled out the necessary books, opening them and remembering why he dropped out of university to start a fashion empire.

/*****/

**TWO**

Everywhere in the house was loud. The kitchen and dining room as dinner was cleared away, obviously, had the most people and most noise. The purple living room quickly filled, and even the back porch (where Nathalie had hidden for the rest of dinner, ignoring the late fall chill) became occupied. Nathalie went upstairs. Penny and Jagged's door was closed but she could hear voices behind it and Adrien's room was full of teens, the door half open and letting out their laughter. It reminded her why she was upset, and she went in the only unoccupied room- Nathalie Agreste's.

Nathalie sat on the bed, trying to decide what to do. She considered taking a nap, but thought better of it. Better to turn in early that night. She went to the desk and sifted through plans she couldn't understand. The handwriting was hers but slanted a bit and not as smudged as her own left handed writing tended to be. She set the papers aside and found a notebook. She started writing down everything she remembered about the spell and the process of creating it. She didn't remember enough to recreate it, but this felt like doing something, so she continued. After she had filled a few pages with notes, she flipped to a fresh page.

"Mr. Agreste,

I must"

She wasn't sure what she was writing, or why, so she left it there and put the notebook away.

/*****/

**ONE**

"I'm aware you don't want my opinion," Gabriel said, yanking Nathalie from her flow state.

"You're learning, that's good," she muttered.

"We will not finish this tonight. Not through lack of effort. And even if we did pinpoint where the translation and implementation of the spell went wrong, I don't think either of us have the knowledge to figure out how to safely reverse the damage. If you want, you may take a guest room for the night- for the duration of your stay, if that would be easier for you. But this is not sustainable and will not be productive for much longer tonight."

He laid out a rational argument, appealing to long-term productivity and efficiency. She hated him for it.

"Does your Nathalie stay over often?"

"Every now and then, when we work too late and neither of us are awake enough to drive her home safely. Adrien won't find it unusual. I can take you to her apartment tomorrow to get clothes, if you like."

Nathalie nodded. "Fine. Tonight I stay, tomorrow I'll start using her apartment." She jotted down a couple notes. "She doesn't have a pet that will die without me, does she?"

"Not unless she was hiding it from me the last time I dropped her off."

They worked a half hour longer, just because Nathalie was mad at Gabriel, then she declared them done for the night.

Gabriel showed Nathalie a room and even procured pajamas in her size. They exchanged snide remarks and she slammed the door in his face.

In his room, Gabriel unbuttoned his shirt and stood before the mirror. There was a bruise along his neck where his shirt had cut into his throat when Nathalie jerked him off his stool earlier. She was... not what he expected. She looked like Nathalie, she talked like Nathalie, she moved like Nathalie. She fought like a soldier.

Like a mother separated from her child.

/***/

Nathalie found herself, unsurprisingly, unable to sleep in the guest room of a giant empty mansion. She was used to hearing Adrien on video chat with Marinette until all hours of the night, hearing Jagged and Penny singing to their unborn baby, hearing sirens down the street. She also found herself unable to cry, as she had been unable to cry over her lost Gabriel so many times. She had kept her emotions so tightly controlled in front of people for so long that once she was alone, she couldn't always turn those feelings back on.

She gave up on sleep and found a robe to throw over her pajamas. She made her way down to the kitchen, making no noise even in the unfamiliar house. Paon was the sneaky one of the hero duo. Gabriel had been the dramatic, attention-grabbing one. He pretended to complain about being the distraction, but really he was the first line of defense, allowing Paon to get in position to use her darts with the precision of an assassin.

Nathalie didn't encounter a single soul on the way and found the kitchen empty. The hum of the refrigerator was at least some noise, and she could feel herself relaxing. She found a kettle and set up for tea. She sat at the small island she and Adrien had shared earlier and sipped her tea, trying to get her brain to stop processing a thousand things at once. She pulled the personal tablet from her pocket and set it on the counter, using a list making app to see if getting some thoughts out of her brain and onto "paper" would help.

"Oh! Sorry, I didn't know you were here," Adrien said, standing awkwardly in the doorway.

"Work ran later than expected and I may have had a bit too much coffee," Nathalie said. "Would you like tea?"

"I was just grabbing a midnight snack."

She nodded and pretended to return to her work. Really she watched Adrien poke around the kitchen, considering a food before putting it back.

"Eat whatever you're craving," she said. "If you're too skinny, you can't model. And if you don't eat enough, you won't grow tall enough to stay a model. So any objection your father might have is unfounded."

"I'm not sure he'll see it that way," Adrien said, taking an apple to the sink to rinse.

"Then I'll make him see it that way," Nathalie said. "Have some peanut-butter with that apple, or cheese."

Adrien grabbed peanut-butter and a knife and started to head to the door.

"You don't have to leave," Nathalie said. Adrien back-tracked to sit with her.

"You're sure you're okay?" Adrien asked after a minute.

"It scared you, seeing me like that?" Nathalie asked.

Adrien nodded. "I didn't know what to do. I still think I probably should have called for an ambulance."

She put her hand on his. "I promise I'm fine. I'm so sorry I scared you."

She watched him eat and took more notes.

"Do you have my schedule for tomorrow?"

She flipped through a few screens and brought up the schedule labeled "Adrien" and- wait, this couldn't be right. The schedule was overfilled for an adult. This was not okay.

"Oh, so I don't have time to see Nino's flute recital."

Adrien finished his snack, thanked her, and left.

Nathalie stared at that schedule for a while. She flipped back through the past few days. Then she started searching for something specific.

Three weeks.

Gabriel Agreste, Asshole Edition, had not had a meal with his son in three weeks. And she knew that for sure, because every meal was scheduled, and every cancelled appointment was marked as such.

She was going to kill that man.

/*****/

**TWO**

The house emptied out quickly after nine that night, a curfew apparently making people rush. Nathalie came downstairs to try to apologize and play the hostess, since she knew no other role to adopt. People tried to encourage her, vowing to help her get home any way they could, and some cynical part of her tried to cling to the idea that they were saying this because they just wanted their General back.

"MmmNathalie?"

He had tried to call her "Mom" again.

"Yes, Adrien?"

"How are you doing?" He sat in the living room and fiddled with one of the remote controls on the table. How had the other Nathalie not replaced them all with a universal remote yet?

"I'm... just a little tired from trying to keep up with everything."

Adrien smiled sadly. "You have the same expressions as her. You try to hide things from me like she does. You know, both of my parents tried to hide that they were miraculous holders from me?"

Nathalie sat on the other end of the couch. "Tell me about them."

He spoke slowly at first, declaring this "weird to tell someone with Mom's face", but he picked up after a few minutes. She heard stories of how Gabriel and Nathalie had searched for the missing miraculouses, working with some mystery figure called "the Guardian" to find the miraculouses through research, magic, and detective work. He told her that they went on this search because Adrien got caught near one of the early attack sites and they couldn't sit back and let that happen again, to him or anyone else's son. He laughed as he recounted the night he finally caught them sneaking back in and accused them of everything under the sun (cheating on each other, black market organ dealing, and running a kidnapping ring) before Gabriel broke and tried to transform. He couldn't because Nooroo needed to recharge, but it was a conversation starter. Adrien was about to start a story about helping his father pick out an engagement ring when Jagged walked in.

"It's late," he said. "We have a war counsel tomorrow. I know you're not the General, but you're invited to join, if you like."

Nathalie was about to politely decline when Adrien sat up straight on the couch.

"Can I-"

"No," Jagged said, ruffling Adrien's hair. "You can work on becoming the world's best babysitter for when little Stevie or Elvis is born."

All three went upstairs and as Nathalie reached for her door, Adrien stopped her with a hand on her arm.

"I know you're not her," he said. "I know it. But..."

Nathalie hugged him. It was what he needed. It was what they both needed.

"But your last parent disappeared on you today, and you need a hug," she said, running a hand over his hair. "I'll get her back for you somehow."

She fell asleep with that vow echoing in her head.

/*****/

**ONE**

The kitchen had been good for more than tea the night before. Nathalie felt safer with a couple knives hidden on and around her, even in sleep. This was how Gabriel found one of his favorite shirts with a tear in the sleeve and a knife in the hallway wall behind him the next morning.

"You just threw a knife at me!"

Nathalie sat bolt upright and stared at him, her arm still extended towards him.

"I also suspect you only missed because your glasses weren't on."

"What time is it?" Nathalie asked, shoving her hair from her face and pushing her glasses on, scrambling from the bed.

"Almost eight. You had mentioned that Nathalie's phone went with her, I guess I didn't think to ask if you had yours. A lack of alarm clock was a silly thing to- what are you doing?"

Nathalie had surveyed the room while he spoke and then opened the closet, walked in, and closed it behind her.

"Getting dressed."

"You don't have any clothes in there. There's nothing in there."

"My clothes from yesterday."

"Oh. Anyway, I will order you a phone. Not particularly useful, an assistant without a phone."

"Fine. I'll meet you downstairs in a minute."

Gabriel left, removing the knife from the wall and returning it to the kitchen. He should feel shaken, he knew, but mostly he was impressed.

Nathalie leaned her forehead against the door of the closet, trying to calm her shaking. She knew this was the other Earth, the other Gabriel, but part of her couldn't let go of the split second feeling of "You almost threw a knife into your husband's chest".

Gabriel wouldn't have noticed anything was wrong had Nathalie not hesitated when he held out a travel mug of coffee to her. That pause broke the rhythm of the morning just enough that when she reached for the coffee he could see her hand shaking.

So, this woman did feel something other than rage. He might be able to use that.

On the way to Nathalie's apartment, she remembered why she was mad at him. More mad at him, anyway.

"You are no longer cancelling meals with Adrien," she said. "Furthermore, his schedule will be relaxed so that he has time to be a teenager. Also, stop policing what he eats."

"You don't get to tell me how to raise my son." Gabriel kept his voice level, but he realized he should have expected this from her. She parented the Adrien in her world, after all.

"No, you're right. I'm simply telling you _to_ raise him."

"He is healthy, doing well in school, well liked by his peers, accomplished in languages, music, athletics-"

"Was he this busy when Emilie was around?"

He clenched his teeth, trying not to grind them. "No, he was not. I keep him busy so he doesn't have the time to dwell and wallow."

"If that was true, you'd spend time with him."

"Again, you don't get to tell me how to raise my son." Nooroo was squirming around in his pocket the way he would when Gabriel's emotions became strong. It bothered him even more that this impostor was able to get a reaction out of him.

"What would Emilie think, Gabriel?"

They were lucky they had just pulled in the apartment complex because Gabriel slammed on the breaks and turned on Nathalie. "Emilie is why I can't see him!" Gabriel shouted. "He looks like her. He talks like her. He thinks like her. His sadness and mine are the same- an absence of her in our lives, and every time I see him I'm reminded that I haven't brought his mother back yet. I can't live with that, Nathalie. I can't."

He had lost steam as he shouted, sagging against the seat.

Nathalie nodded. "You've needed to say that for a while?"

"Apparently."

She glanced at the apartment complex. "Don't bother waiting for me, I need a shower. I will extend the start time of magical research based on what time I get back to the mansion."

"I'll see you soon, then."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	5. Mirror (HawkNath)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time skip. An opportunity presents itself to the rebels on Earth 2, but they need a miraculous holder in the next few hours. On Earth 1, Nathalie sneaks off to do some research without Gabriel and finds a familiar face with answers.

**Seven Weeks Later**

**ONE**

Adrien was sitting alone in the dining room. Nathalie had waited a few days after the argument in the car to schedule a meal for Adrien and Gabriel. That one had gone well, but every one after that had been a fight. So Adrien was sitting alone.

She decided to play her new game.

"Mr. Agreste? I need your opinion on something, if you have a moment."

Gabriel nodded distractedly and paused whatever was on his screen. He walked to where she stood beside her desk, expecting her to extend her tablet for him to see. Instead she turned and exited the office. Gabriel followed her, glancing around for what he was supposed to declare judgement upon. She led him to the dining room door and opened it, her hand landing on his back.

"Adrien has seen you. If you leave now, it will be because you are a coward, unwilling to acknowledge his son's feelings. I strongly encourage you to not be that person."

He tried to shift away from the threat that was her hand, but it followed him.

"I expect you to finish the filing by the time I'm back," he hissed at her.

"Of course, Mr. Agreste."

She walked away, knowing she had only won the battle, not the war.

But he was just so easy. A cheerful, "Mr. Agreste" and he'd follow her off a cliff. She wouldn't admit it (not that she had anyone to admit it to), but she enjoyed tricking him. She wondered if her double knew the power she had over him.

Gabriel had his own little victories though. He would bring her coffee, but he would not bring creamer. Or give her decaf. He would send her on errands during the day that turned out to be wild goose chases. The phone he ordered her was the slowest, oldest model still available. He made work as inefficient as possible while demanding the same time schedule as he had with "his" Nathalie. The perfectionist she was, she couldn't just leave the work to wait.

Adrien, bless him, was mostly oblivious. He still hadn't noticed that the red streak in her hair had switched sides. He did try to ask Nathalie why she and Gabriel were fighting, but she simply confused him with a hug.

With the translated spell and a fair idea of what had gone wrong, they needed a magical expert to help them undo the switch.

Nathalie had a few ideas of who could help. Not that she was planning on telling Hawkmoth who they were.

/*****/

**TWO**

Ladybug and Chat Noir had been wounded in the fight that killed Gabriel, Nathalie found out. They hadn't been going out as often and their rampages were shorter and weaker than normal. The General had been going out only when their destruction threatened highly populated areas. However, they were now unopposed, and it was only a matter of time before they figured that out. Kubdel split his time researching how the Nathalies had gotten switched, searching for new miraculous holders, and smuggling valuable museum artifacts out of the abandoned Louvre between raids on the building. Nathalie found herself being an assistant to anyone who needed it. She babysat the Cesaire twins, she helped Alix and Mylene with homework, she drove Adrien to Japanese lessons, she kept inventory in code for Penny. She was accepted into the crowd a little too quickly, given the benefit of the doubt for her appearance. She was standoffish and reticent and absolutely refused to swap "war stories", though no one guessed it was because hers were all the wrong ones. But no one seemed to mind, and Adrien seemed to find comfort in her presence.

So she stayed. She worked. She researched and tried to be as little a burden to these people as she could.

It didn't feel like enough.

Maybe that feeling was what made her do it. Maybe being around an Adrien who saw her differently was the cause. She couldn't know for sure.

"Mr. Agreste,

I need you to know that I"

"Gabriel,

I've tried to"

"Sir,

My time in the other world has left me no choice. I have to"

She closed the notebook again and tucked it under her arm. She didn't have a tablet. There was no need for one here, but she needed something to carry with her everywhere. It felt right.

The front door opened with a bang and Nathalie ducked into a crouch, listening. When she heard Jagged shouting, she felt a little safer (It wasn't an attack or a raid, at least), but he never came home this early, and he knew that slamming doors and raised voices put everyone on edge.

"Sweetheart? Nat? We gotta move, we gotta get the word out!"

Nathalie ran downstairs, meeting Jagged and Adrien in the hall, and Penny in the kitchen.

"We've got one shot. One shot to get this to work."

"Get what to work?" Nathalie asked. At least she had years of experience forcing another version of Jagged to sit still, focus, and answer questions.

"An attack. The big one, the one we've had planned for almost a year. If we do this right, we can cripple the regime's control for months. Possibly enough to bring them down."

"Then we need Kubdel," Adrien said. "We need the miraculous."

She didn't like the look in Adrien's eye.

/*****/

**ONE**

Nathalie had made an excuse at lunch time to leave the office. She was surprised that her complaints about cramps were met with sympathy and a sincere offer of the afternoon off if she needed it. It was the moments when he acted most like her Gabriel that hurt the most, made her hate him the most. It made using him as a bargaining chip to get home easier in some ways, harder in others.

"Hello, Master Fu," Nathalie said when he opened the door to his massage parlor.

"Welcome," he said, guiding her to sit with him at a small table. "You didn't say on the phone, what services were you looking for?"

"Knowledge of the miraculouses and magic." She reached into her bag to pull out her tablet. "You can understand why I didn't ask for this over the phone, I'm sure."

"I think you have me confused for someone else," Master Fu said.

"In my world, Master Fu was paired with Wayzz. Is he here? I've missed him. I know he won't know me, but it would be nice to see a version of the kwami I knew, all the same."

Wayzz popped out of his fish tank to float over to her.

"Master, she is-"

"Not of this world," Master Fu finished. He turned his phone for Wayzz and Nathalie to see. He had brought up a press photo of Gabriel giving a speech a few years ago, Nathalie hovering behind him. "You're from a Mirror World."

"I see I chose well in looking for someone who knows more about the magic that brought me here than I do."

"How exactly did you end up here?"

"I will tell you what I know," she said. "But my safety, and the safety of a few others- the whole city, really, is at risk. I have to know that you won't alert Ladybug and Chat Noir until I have secured a way home. Do you agree?"

"You know something worth my silence? Something the heroes would want to know?"

He had that knowing look that always annoyed her so much.

"Do you know how to get me home?" she asked.

"I know a few ways to get you home," he said. "But none will be effective if I don't know how you got here."

Nathalie nodded. "I know who Hawkmoth is. His attempt to strengthen his power did this. He needs to be stopped before he reaches the level of power of my world's Ladybug and Chat Noir."

"You know who he is?"

"I'll confirm the name after you have a solution," she said.

Master Fu nodded.

"It seems we have a lot to talk about."

/*****/

**TWO**

Fred Haprèle had a map laid out on the dining room table. Nathalie wasn't sure if it was a cliche or actually necessary, but she stood with the others, listening to him explain the plan he and the General had outlined in the event this happened. "The not-so-miraculous duo will be heading out to do their thing around eight. That leaves about a ninety minute window when they're out and the Vice Royal Dictator is out of his fortified home travelling to His Royal Dictatorship's estate. The travel team is ready to go on our signal. The teams striking the government buildings are mobilizing, but need a little longer to all get in place. So we're out of time. Kubdel, we need at least one miraculous holder to keep Ladybug and Chat Noir busy. What do you have?"

"Not a lot," Kubdel said. "We only have three miraculouses, and the Bee is damaged, but I can't figure out how. We have the Agreste miraculouses, but they won't seem to bond with any of the people I tested. Master Fu did not leave good notes on the selection process."

"Hand it around the room," Nathalie said.

Everyone turned to stare at her. It was the first input she had ever had for any of the few meetings she had attended.

"What will that do?" Penny asked.

"Everyone who would be willing to wield it tonight should try holding it, regardless of whatever the normal rules are for bonding to a miraculous. It's just for one mission, so regardless of long term compatibility, someone is bound to bond well enough to take it for the night. Sometimes you just know who can wield it, sometimes you need a more open approach."

"How do you know that?"

"Just research. Research in my world. We didn't have access to a Guardian."

She knew because Gabriel had tried sneakily handing the Peacock Miraculous to a few people, including herself, but never found one that bonded. He had heard of the method as a folk lore in Tibet.

Kubdel nodded and started lining people up to try the Peacock and the Butterfly. No one who volunteered was a match.

"Keep looking," Penny said, patting his arm. "We still have an hour."

The group broke into groups, discussing and planning and worrying. Nathalie sat with Penny and Jagged.

"Little Prince or Farrah isn't liking all the excitement," Penny said, rubbing a spot where her baby kept kicking.

"So long as he or she stays in there the rest of tonight, I'm sure I'll find a way to forgive him or her for kicking my wife."

"You know, I think that's the first thing you've said about your team," Penny said to Nathalie. "What's your usual role when there's an attack?"

"If I'm not caught in the crossfire, I get as far from it as I can. I've hidden under my desk from akuma attack victims before, and I'll do it again."

"That's generally my policy," Jagged said. "I once managed to hide in a closet _in a suitcase_! Me, in a suitcase! I still can't believe I-"

"You're on their side," Penny breathed.

Everyone went still, one at a time, as the sense of unease passed through the room.

She had fucked up. Nathalie had fucked up, after weeks of covering her tracks perfectly. She had only wanted to help by volunteering that bit about finding a miraculous holder. Then she had stupidly answered a simple question.

"Your Hawkmoth wasn't worried about the effects of enhancing his power because the power was the goal itself, wasn't it?" Penny was pulling away from Nathalie, horror written on her face.

"No. No, you don't understand-"

"Hawkmoth is the villain for you," Penny said, standing to back away. "Just like your hair. Just like the hand you use to write. Even your relationship with Gabriel is different. Everything's flipped around with you, and we didn't even see it."

Nathalie raised a trembling hand to cover her mouth, horrified that tears would betray her now after so many years of obeying her demands to wait until she was alone.

"We let you in our home! We let you near Adrien! We _trusted_ you!"

Nathalie would never know what Jagged planned to do when he took a step towards where she sat. The second he started moving, a blinding flash filled the room.

"Adrien," Nathalie sobbed. "No."

She knew what she had to do now.

/*****/

**ONE**

"I found the right fix. It will take me a bit to prepare it," Fu said into the phone held between his face and his shoulder as he started pulling ingredients down from a shelf. "I will come to you."

"Thank you," Nathalie said. She could only think about getting back home. "Text when you're on your way. I'll have everything ready."

Nathalie knew she had to get through the rest of the day acting normal with Gabriel. If he suspected she had gotten knowledge behind his back, suspected she'd betray him like this... she wasn't sure what he would do. She couldn't always predict this Gabriel's actions like she had been able to with her own.

Nathalie decided to check on Adrien, maybe burn off some of her excitement by listening to him talk about how his father had eaten a meal with him again.

"Plagg, Claws Out!"

Normally Nathalie would never violate Adrien's privacy by opening the door to his room before getting a response to a knock. But that phrase sounded like-

Chat Noir. Adrien. Oh.

She watched Chat Noir jump out his bedroom window, then backed out of the room, closing the door silently. She wandered back to the office on autopilot and sat down at her desk.

"You still look pale. At least go rest for a few hours," Gabriel said, stirring her from staring at her blank computer screen.

"I think I will," she said, grabbing her purse. Adrien was Chat Noir. In the room she frequently borrowed, Nathalie sat and thought about what this meant. She had limited time here. What could she do to fix this? Chat/Adrien was gone, and would be too difficult to track down. Leaving a note for him was risky, someone else might find it. She assumed Master Fu already knew Chat Noir's identity, and it made her angry, but wasn't a surprise. She knew what she _wanted_ to do. But was it worth the risk?

Nathalie decided to try to sleep. In a few hours, one way or the other, everything was going to change again.

/*****/

**TWO**

Nathalie crossed the room in an instant. Adrien stood staring her down, the sting of betrayal making him look smaller even with the costume of his father's miraculous wrapped around him. He would make a good Hawkmoth someday, but right now he looked like he was playing dress up.

"I can't believe you," Adrien whispered. "You were... you were so kind to me. So patient when I called you the wrong thing. How could you work with someone like them?"

The move felt familiar, practiced. She had seen herself do it enough times in her mind. Though usually to Gabriel, not Adrien. Nathalie lifted a hand and set it on the side of Adrien's face, trying to communicate through her touch the weight of her regret.

Then she slipped her hand down to yank the miraculous from his chest.

The detransformation was bright, but she was expecting it. She fastened the brooch to her lapel and called on Nooroo's power.

"I'm sorry," she said to Penny, walking backwards to the door, keeping her and Jagged and Adrien in her sight as long as possible. "I'm so sorry. I never wanted this."

She ran into the night. She knew exactly where to go.

/*****/

**ONE**

Nathalie came back with a half hour until the end of the day. She finished a few urgent tasks and turned to Gabriel.

"I'll make up the time later this week, but I need us to get to work upstairs, if you don't mind."

Gabriel sighed but nodded. In the lair he flipped open a book and started taking notes.

"Gabriel?" Nathalie said, taking a step closer to where he sat.

"Mmm?"

"Look at me."

Gabriel looked up just as she stepped the rest of the way into his space. Her hands fell to his shoulders and she leaned down to kiss him. To her shock, he started kissing back. She slid one hand up to run her nails against the nape of his neck, the other down his chest. And back up to yank his miraculous from under his tie. She shoved him backwards off the stool and as luck would have it, he fell hard enough to be winded for a moment, giving her time to transform.

"I'll never forgive you for this," she whispered. She closed her eyes and said, "Teleport!"

She knew exactly where to go.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you thought HawkNath meant Hawkmoth x Nathalie and not Hawkmoth!Nathalie, _you were gravely mistaken_.  
>  Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like :)


	6. Surrender (Casual Friday)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On Earth 2, Nathalie buys the team some time. On Earth 1, Nathalie ties up loose ends with the miraculous holders.

**TWO**

The map on the table for the war counsel had been useful after all. Nathalie knew exactly where the guards patrolled along the route to Ladybug and Chat Noir's target. She had thought she would feel too conspicuous in the bright purple costume, but the colors were muted and based more in black than purple for her. She wound her way through the city, and while it didn't feel as wrong as she expected, she was in no way comfortable. She had a cane that hid a sword, the ability to summon a butterfly to make a champion to assist her, and the ability to teleport once. This was not promising. But she only had to keep them busy long enough for the rebels’ attacks to happen, right? So, engage and survive. That's all.

Nathalie waited in the shadow of a chimney, the first snow of the season falling lightly around her. She didn't know exactly what she was waiting for, but when the top floor of a building was sheared off by Ladybug's yoyo string, she realized that destruction looked like destruction, regardless of if the cause was an akuma or a miraculous holder.

Nathalie stepped out of the shadows, cringing at the thought of a dramatic entrance, but knowing there was a time to move beyond the casual.

"That seems an inefficient use of your weapon," Nathalie called down the street. She cringed again.

"Hey, Birdy's back!" Chat Noir said, turning in a circle on the roof next to Ladybug, looking for the source of Nathalie's voice. "Wait. What? What are you wearing? What happened to your own miraculous? Why take your dead boyfriend's?"

"Do I look like I'm here to discuss that?"

"She's in a mood," Ladybug said to Chat.

"Look, is the banter part of this really necessary?" Nathalie realized the second after she said it that the banter was what was stood between her and being beaten up by two experienced terrorists with superpowers.

"You have been no fun since your little bug friend kicked it," Ladybug complained. "Do you really want to do two on one right now? Or are we waiting for your magician or robot or giant humanoid rubber band ball or whatever?"

"No, let's just... do this thing," Nathalie said, pulling out her sword, holding the cane in her other hand. Adrien had gotten her to practice with him a few times, but she was pretty sure anything she did know had left her mind the second she saw this world's Adrien transform. All she knew was protecting him. She may never get home. She may now have nowhere to go. But she would not let him throw himself into danger if she could stop it.

It was terrible. Nathalie remembered little of the fight once it was over, whether from the concussion she suffered or because of the trauma, but she didn't feel the need to go digging for those memories. What she did remember was seeing the little Ladyblogger duck behind a garbage can while filming, and relaxing a little that at least the team knew she was making their attack possible, her pain wasn't for nothing. She remembered goading Chat Noir into trying to use Cataclysm on her and tossing a handful of pebbles into his open, clawed hand and watching them turn into dust. She remembered the next five minutes while Chat Noir took out his rage at being tricked into wasting his superpower. She remembered the moment she realized if she didn't leave the battle, she might die. She didn't remember what made her think that though. She got a bit of distance between herself and Ladybug and called for a butterfly. She had been ignoring her ability to sense feelings, just like she ignored her own, but now she found one soul nearby with the desperate need to help. She granted his wish and wondered what the hell was wrong with Gabriel that he used this gift to magnify feelings of sadness, anger, betrayal, hurt.

Nathalie waited until her champion had arrived. He knew to keep Ladybug busy as long as possible and then get safely away and wait for her to call the akuma back. Once he had engaged Ladybug, she ran. At first she just ran away, no destination in mind, but then she realized that regardless of the fact that she was now an outcast, the rebels needed the miraculous. She would have to return.

/*****/

**ONE**

"I knew I'd find you here," Nathalie said when she appeared on the observation deck of the Eiffel Tower. "Aesthetics seem very important to your hero identities."

Ladybug and Chat Noir spun around, weapons at the ready.

"I'm not him," she said. "But if you come with me, I'll give you his miraculous."

"Who are you? Where did you come from?" Ladybug demanded.

"Just a friend. Come with me."

The heroes seemed frozen, unable to process the odd turn their patrol was taking. Nathalie started crawling down the side of the Tower, knowing that at the very least they would chase her. She used her five minutes to guide them to Master Fu's shop.

"Oh," Master Fu said when he saw the three at his door.

Once past the doorway, Nathalie released her transformation and caught Nooroo in her cupped hands.

"Am I... really free of him?" Nooroo asked, his tired eyes falling shut.

"Nathalie?" Chat Noir screeched.

"You know her?" Ladybug asked.

"I, yeah, I mean... Gabriel Agreste is famous and she works for him. I've seen her. So, yes?"

"You're free," Nathalie said, patting Nooroo’s head with the tip of a finger. "Here, I have hard candy for you." She pulled one from her pocket and held it out to Nooroo who took it and slumped back in her hand. She placed him on her shoulder and let him rest there.

"Why are you- How did you find- Where is- Who is-?" Ladybug spluttered.

"I won't tell you who he is," she said. "He's broken enough. He doesn't need to face you. And you don't need to face him. But I needed you to know that he’s been stopped. I needed you to see that his miraculous was back in the Guardian’s hands."

The children argued with Nathalie (at her, she was paying more attention to Nooroo on one shoulder and Wayzz on the other) until Master Fu cut them off.

"It is her decision," Master Fu said. "Your mission is complete. The city is safe from Hawkmoth. So, I think you two have some important things to discuss."

Master Fu led the heroes to the door. Nathalie let impulse rule once again and pulled Chat Noir into a hug.

“I'm very proud of you,” she whispered.

Before Chat could ask if she knew who he was, before Ladybug could ask what Nathalie had said, Master Fu very gracefully shut the door in their faces.

"You did promise me a name," Master Fu said.

Nathalie all but fell into a chair, taking her glasses off to press a hand over her eyes. She couldn’t leave that boy, but she had her own boy at home who needed her.

“Just… give me a minute.”

“Take all the time you need,” Master Fu said.

/*****/

**TWO**

Nathalie remembered her one-use power and teleported to Nathalie Agreste's room. She managed to get the door open before her strength gave out and she went crashing to the floor.

She was in and out of consciousness after that. Jagged carried her downstairs to the couch. Adrien reached for the miraculous and she pushed his hand away. When she saw Penny returning with first aid supplies, she unpinned the brooch and handed it to her, demanding that she not let Adrien have it. She wasn't aware of it, but she babbled apologies while they tended to her injuries.

"She's either asleep or passed out again," Jagged whispered, smoothing the last bandage over a cut just above the line of her left jawbone. "I say we let her rest until the doctor gets here."

They moved to the kitchen and Jagged wrapped Adrien in a gentle hug. Adrien hadn't realized he was shaking until the steady arms pulled him close.

"I know she looks like her, but she's not your mum."

"It's not that," Adrien said. He freed an arm to wipe his tears. "I mean, it's not only that. She didn't ask to be here, she lied because she had nowhere else to go. I still can't believe she works with the wrong side, but maybe... Maybe she thought she was doing the right thing? She stopped me from taking the beating that left her like that. So maybe..."

"I overreacted," Penny said, pulling Adrien into a hug of her own. "After all she's done here, all the help she's been, I should have given her the benefit of the doubt. You heard her apologizing, trying to explain. Even if what she did was wrong and for the wrong reasons, turning her out wouldn't make that right."

"She can stay?" Adrien asked.

"Until she's better, at the very least."

Jagged sent Adrien to bed, promising to tell him if the doctor decided Nathalie needed to go to the hospital. He and Penny sat in the living room and waited.

/*****/

**ONE**

After mentally working her way methodically through what had happened the past few weeks, Nathalie felt like she just wanted to sleep. "I think I understand her, finally," Nathalie said. "Probably not, but I understand her better, anyway."

"And what do you understand?"

"If I, a person with experience fighting literal supervillains, can be sucked in and bargain my way into working with a supervillain, what was she expected to do? He spent the first few days trying to scare me into submission. I almost broke his arm the last time he tried. I had tools. I don't think she had anything."

“You see now that she did the best with what she had.”

“Even Adrien. I don’t think she knew Adrien is Chat Noir. I’ll have to tell her. She needs to know the truth of both.”

Fu nodded. "I do regret that things almost came down to Adrien fighting his own father. The boy deserves better."

"He deserves the world.”

They were quiet a moment, both watching the kwamis deep in their own conversation across the room.

"You said that my counterpart in the other world passed away?" Master Fu asked.

"Yes. Two years ago he was caught in an attack. The Turtle Miraculous went missing."

Master Fu nodded. "Then I can perform the spell for you. That is why Gabriel was not switched by his folly, he had no one with whom to switch. Your counterpart must have been the closest person to him at that moment." Fu shook his head. "But you don't care about the why or the how, you are just anxious to get back, I'm sure. Forgive an old man his rambling."

Nathalie nodded. She pulled out two envelopes. "Please see that these are delivered." She then got up to kiss both kwamis on the head as a goodbye.

"Are you ready?"

She nodded. He rang the little gong he used for healing, and she was unconscious.

And then she was staring at herself in a mirror in a place where there was nothing but the dark, her reflection, and the reflection of a black, green, and red door behind her.

Except the reflection looked like she had fallen down a flight of stairs or six and was wearing different clothes. And when Nathalie turned to look at the door behind herself, she saw it was purple, not multicolored.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Nathalie Sancoeur said.

“Nice to meet you as well,” Nathalie Agreste said.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The door color symbolizes the heroes in that world at that moment.  
> Sorry for the lack of Gabriel. And just... the whole chapter. I'm not satisfied with it, but I need to be done with it, and it leads well into the next one.  
> Talk with me over at [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) if you like. It always makes my day.


	7. Favorite Shirt (Day Off)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Nathalies adjust to the changes the other brought about in their own world.

**ZERO**

“I don't know how long we have here,” Nathalie Agreste said.

"But it doesn't feel like there's a rush, does there?" Nathalie Sancoeur said.

"No, it doesn't."

As one, they sat on the ground of the place with the doors.

"I have so much to tell you," Nathalie Agreste said.

"I'm going to quit," Sancoeur said. "I've written over sixty drafts of my resignation letter."

"I took his miraculous," Agreste said. "So you don't have to if you don't want to. He'll need someone to watch him, make sure he doesn't do anything stupid." She smirked. "And, hopefully, for the rest of his life, when he looks at you, he'll remember me almost dislocating his arm for not listening to me."

Sancoeur laughed. "I fantasize about punching him in the face, but also about him whisking me away from all this nonsense and settling down somewhere to start over." Her smile fell. "Yours was a hero. An attentive father. A man who knew how to move on."

"The difference between you and me," Agreste said, leaning forward, "is that I know how much power I hold, and I don't let anyone take it from me."

"You know that's not it," Sancoeur said.

"You're right," Agreste said with a sigh. "I don't know what the difference between us is."

"I don't think it matters."

They sat there in silence for a bit, puzzling over the meaning of having a double.

"When you go back," Sanceour said, "there's an akumatized man out there waiting for someone to recall his butterfly. I know it's your husband's miraculous, but-"

"I'll make sure he's restored," Agreste said. "When you go back, Adrien is Chat Noir."

Sancoeur sighed. "I'll deal with that when I can."

Another pause.

"Has Penny-"

"You haven't missed the birth. I'm jealous that I will though."

"It wouldn't take much to play matchmaker with your Penny."

Sancoeur nodded.

Silence.

"I don't want to leave," Sancoeur said. "I'm not in pain here."

"Yes, what did you do?"

"It's a long story. My side of it is that... I couldn't make myself tell them who I was in my world because I couldn't give up what you had there. And then Adrien put on his father's miraculous. I'm sure you can extrapolate my reaction from there."

"Oh for- You faced them? You? From what I can tell, you have negative combat training."

"I have a lot of Ladybug and Chat Noir training."

"Yes, clearly you came out of this battle the winner."

"I didn't need to win." She shook her head. "They'll explain it to you."

As one, they rose to their feet.

"Maybe, if you want, it can work with him," Agreste said. "If you can balance the power between you, it might work. If you can't... If you can't, get out."

"Funny, I was just thinking of giving myself the same advice."

Agreste smiled. "Terrible."

"Thank you."

They each glanced at their door.

"So... we don't have to hug or anything, right?"

"I'm worried if we do, this place will dissolve or we'll explode or something."

"Good, good."

"Good luck."

"You too."

They walked past each other to their door. Touching the doorknob felt right in a way they hadn't realized the other's world lacked.

As the doors closed, each shimmered, gained a patch of blue, and then disappeared.

/*****/

**TWO**

"I'm home," Nathalie breathed. She opened her eyes and saw that she was on the couch in the living room. She could hear Penny and Jagged talking quietly in the kitchen. She stretched and stood. Looking down she saw she was wearing the same clothes she had been wearing on the other Earth. That meant that whatever the other Nathalie was wearing went with her.

"She stole my favorite shirt!"

Jagged peeked into the room and nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Is this... are you back? Or did my first aid skills completely heal you?"

"I'm back. Where is my son? Where is your wife? Oh, where is the Butterfly Miraculous? I need to deakumatize someone."

Jagged grinned and pulled Nathalie into a hug. He shouted for Adrien and Penny, laughing and spinning them around the room.

"Mom!"

Adrien jumped down the rest of the stairs and almost knocked Nathalie and Jagged over with the force of his embrace.

"What are we- General?"

Jagged pulled back from the hug to let Penny and her baby bump have room.

"I missed you all," Nathalie said. She kissed Adrien's head and put a hand on Penny's belly. "Do you have a name yet? Joan or Aretha or Cindy?"

"You're so sure I'm having a girl," Penny said.

"I just know." She let go of Penny to put both arms around Adrien. "Just like I know this. Can I have the Butterfly Miraculous, please?"

Penny pulled it from her pocket. Nathalie pressed it into Adrien's hands.

"You'll need training before you can go out," Nathalie said. "But your doppelganger has been Chat Noir- the hero- for a few years now. He's had close calls. But I can teach you. We can do this together."

Adrien held the miraculous, watching Nooroo appear again.

"Would Dad be okay with this?"

"Dad would be proud," Nathalie said.

Adrien pinned on the miraculous.

"Nooroo, Wings Rise!"

/*****/

**ONE**

Nathalie really wished she had stayed in the place with the doors. Everything hurt.

"Miss Sancoeur?"

"Do I know you?" she asked, propping herself up very slowly. She was on a mat in an unfamiliar room with an unfamiliar man.

"No, we've never met. Are you in need of medical assistance?"

"I believe so," Nathalie said, lying her head back down.

Master Fu did not accompany Nathalie in the ambulance, but he did offer to call anyone she needed.

"Just Gabriel," she said. "I have my phone, I just need to charge it."

The ambulance doors closed and Nathalie allowed the medical professionals to make decisions for her for a while. An indeterminate amount of time later, she was admitted to a room for observation and she begged a nurse for a phone charger. She fell asleep waiting for it to turn on.

"I'm sorry, sir, we can't reveal private medical information-"

"Just tell me if she'll be okay?"

Was that Gabriel? It couldn't be.

"Sir, visiting hours are-"

"I don't care. Where is she?"

"Gabriel?"

"Nathalie?"

Gabriel appeared in her doorway a second later. He was sitting on the side of her bed, touching the red streak in her hair before she could blink.

"I should have known that's why she was acting so strangely," Gabriel muttered. "She was getting you back."

"You left the mansion," Nathalie said. Perhaps the pain medication was messing with her mind. Perhaps he wasn't real.

"Can I- will it hurt you if I hug you?"

"Am I in the right world?" Nathalie asked.

Gabriel pulled her to his chest, his movements so gentle it only added to her doubt.

"You're my Nathalie," he said. "I knew the second I saw her, Nathalie, I knew she wasn't you."

"Sir? What happened?"

"You're home, that's all that matters."

Nathalie fell asleep listening to his reassurances. She wondered that he never once mentioned his miraculous, but there would be time for that later. She was home.

/***/

"You don't have to drive me," Nathalie said, letting him open the car door for her anyway.

"I have years to make up for, Nathalie. Let me have my small, feeble attempts."

He drove her to her apartment and helped her get settled, cleaning the clutter the other Nathalie had left to make it easier to get around with crutches.

"Sir," Nathalie said, "come sit."

He sat and gave her the terrified, worried look that had become so familiar in the past few days.

"I'm going to therapy," Gabriel said when the silence became too much for him. "Anger management and grief counseling. Nothing like having violence used against you to make you see the error of your own violent ways."

Nathalie blinked at him, shock turning to confusion turning to something softer.

"Grief counseling?"

"I'm not going to try to get the Butterfly Miraculous back," he said. "I knew the moment she took it that I would have handed it to her if she'd asked." He looked down at his hand, which had been inching closer to her knee as he talked. "She was everything you were and everything you weren't."

"What are you trying to say, Sir?" Her hand landed on the couch next to his. "What are we dancing around?"

"She made me realize I love you," he said. "And just how much I don't deserve you."

"I think we both lack in deserving," she said. "I helped. I went along. I made it easy."

"Do you think we can be better?"

"We can try."

/***/

"My first day back and there's a present on my desk," Nathalie said, holding up the box. "What is this? Why is it here?"

"You said no flowers," Gabriel said, not looking up from his design program.

She opened it and a familiar ball of light caught her off guard.

"No."

"No?"

"No."

"Just... try for a bit? You don't have to transform."

"Sir, the last time I wore one of these was to-"

"This isn't for hopeless missions against a corrupt government. This isn't to ask you to fight the other Miraculous holders. This is because I think it's right for you. If you wear it for a while and decide you don't want it, give it to the child heroes. I'm sure they'll return it."

Duusu looked between Nathalie and Gabriel. "Where am I? Where's the Guardian?"

"That's for him to explain," Nathalie said, pinning the brooch to the inside of her jacket and taking her seat.

Gabriel sighed. "Where to begin?"

/*****/

**TWO**

**One Week After**

"She's beautiful," Nathalie said, looking at the tiny bundle of pink being packed into a car seat for her ride home from the hospital.

"Are you going to tell us the name yet?" Adrien asked, bouncing next to the car to warm himself against the winter wind.

"You really don't want to wait until we tell everyone at once?" Jagged asked.

"I think we should definitely have special privilege over the rest of everyone, don't you, Adrien?" Nathalie said, helping Penny climb into the passenger's seat. "After all, we'll be the ones helping with her in the middle of the night."

"Yeah but... dramatic reveal," Jagged said.

"I want to tell them," Penny said. "Out of everyone, they'll get it."

"Fine," Jagged said. "But can I say it?" Penny nodded. "Ready?"

Adrien nodded hard and fast and Nathalie fixed him with an unimpressed stare.

"Her name is Alice. It's your middle name and your double's," Jagged said. Nathalie covered her mouth and tried to blink her tears away. "But it's also because you two went through the looking glass into another world."

"She'd be honored," Nathalie said. "And so am I."

/***/

**Two Years After**

"Adrien, dear, are you ready?"

"What do I need to do to get ready? I could go in my pajamas. Once we transform, no one will know." Adrien bounced Alice on his hip as he packed his breakfast.

"You will know. We have to portray strength. This is our first public appearance since we called for elections on the new constitution."

"Yes, and we have to appear strong but not threatening, and all that. But I don't see why I have to put on real clothes."

"Because I'm your mother and I say so."

Adrien handed Alice to Nathalie and ran up the stairs.

"Have I mentioned how nice it is to write music that isn't propaganda?" Jagged asked as he took Alice from Nathalie with one arm and poured himself coffee with the other.

"Only a few hundred times in the past six months," Nathalie said. "Where's Penny?"

"On the phone, another election related call. Is it biased for you to be her campaign manager?"

"Paon is impartial," Nathalie said. "Nathalie knows Penny's politics and agrees with over ninety percent of them."

"I still say you should be the one running, Mom," Adrien said, dressed a bit casual, but Nathalie was picking her battles.

"I never wanted it," she said. "Besides, I sort of miss running an office. Other Gabriel was insane, but the work was nice."

"Do you miss him?" Adrien asked.

"No," she said. "I'm back where I belong."

She was only lying a little.

/*****/

**ONE**

**Seven Years After**

"Adrien, meet your little sister," Gabriel said, ushering his son into the living room. "We named her Alice."

Nathalie deposited a cat in his arms.

"That's good," Adrien said. "A cat is probably the extent of your combined parenting skills."

"He gets that sass from you," Gabriel said, petting Alice between her ears while Adrien shifted her around in his arms to a more comfortable position.

"That's not the only thing I got from her," Adrien said, setting the cat down. "I may have figured it out."

"Figured what- Are you serious?" Nathalie asked, eyes widening. "I told you to be careful! If you were to switch-"

"I didn't switch! Master Fu has been helping me. We found a book on different worlds. And, well... Do you want to try?"

Nathalie nodded. "Let me grab it."

She returned a minute later with a box.

"Okay, put these bracelets on," Adrien said, handing one to each of his parents. "They keep us anchored here. Now, once I start the spell, think about the world you want this box to go to. Ready?"

"Wait," Gabriel said. "I have a letter for her."

"You wrote her a letter?" Nathalie asked, a smile on her face. "She'll like that."

Gabriel fetched his letter and added it to the box.

"If this works, they should have an even easier time sending something back," Adrien said. He performed the spell haltingly but precisely and the box disappeared.

"I guess we wait," Nathalie said.

A screeching could be heard from the street. Gabriel glanced out the window and sighed.

"Apparently, you two can wait while fighting what looks like a sea monster. Please be careful."

"Looks like Ladybug's already on her way," Adrien said, pointing to a red dot out the window. "Ready, Mom?"

Nathalie transformed into Paon, Adrien transformed into Chat Noir, and they climbed out the window and bounded down the street.

/*****/

**TWO**

Nathalie was working on her tablet in the living room, doing a terrible job of taking off the day that would have been her tenth wedding anniversary. She was waiting for the rest of the family to get home when a box blipped into existence before her. She knew where it was from immediately.

Inside she found three letters, a handful of pictures of the other Earth's Agreste family, and at the very bottom, her favorite shirt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's done! I wrote a thing with a plot that started on day 1 and continued the whole time! And in creating this, I came up with 2 more short-ish GabeNath fics I can write so... we'll see if/when I get around to those. Thank you all so much for taking the time to read this. I'm so glad something I had so much fun making was something you chose to spend your time on. Feel free to talk to me, I love being talked to. [cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com](https://cheeseeatingtrashmonster.tumblr.com/) is more fun with YOU! See you next time :)


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